We took note last month of a tweet from University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler, which said: Michael Rodriguez of the U’s College of Education and Human Development has met with hundreds of local school leaders, and now more want to partner to close the achievement gap.

Rodriguez in 2013 was named to a new position devoted to bringing the university’s resources to the effort to address the gap between white students and their peers of color.

That vantage point and a local perspective — he grew up in St. Paul and still lives here — position Rodriguez to assess efforts to close the gap overall, and in our hometown. His observations, in a recent conversation, offer some useful perspective:

Progress: There’s movement, especially recently, in the right direction. But “for most of us and most communities,” progress is too slow in the face of urgent needs, he said.

The wrong question, and the right one: We haven’t found the answer by asking, “What works?” Instead, he suggests we focus on “What works for whom in what context and condition?”

That approach “now is leading us to understand that it’s going to take an effort to tailor our interventions, tailor our practice to meet the needs of the local community, local schools, local classrooms, local families,” Rodriguez explains. “That means really understanding the context in which kids come to the classroom and being able to tailor our practice and our work so that we meet the local need.”

The key ingredient: Relationships — involving students, parents, teachers, school leaders and communities — in a “network of support” around kids. “We often talk about having high expectations for every kid,” he said, “But high expectations only work if we’re able to support every kid,” to match those high expectations.

That, he said, is “where I see real change occurring.”

Too much testing? There probably is “too much testing that’s not really informative and not enough testing that could be really informative,” he told us. The balance is a hard one to strike because of mandates to meet federal accountability requirements.

Our state-level tests, administered each spring, are “just a snapshot,” he said, with results not delivered until fall, after students have moved on.

“They’re just not designed to provide the kind of information teachers really need to inform their practice,” he said. But “teachers themselves assess kids throughout the year,” every day, informally or formally, by asking questions, observing and creating classroom quizzes and tests.

“That’s the area that holds a lot of promise,” he said. “That’s where I want teachers to feel really comfortable with creating good assessment activities,” so they know where the kids are, what they need and how to best meet those needs.

An element in St. Paul students’ favor: By combining key factors, researchers can create a measure of commitment to learning. Such factors, for example, include going to class prepared, doing homework and believing that “being a student is an important part of my role right now.” For St. Paul students across differing ethnic and racial communities, Rodriguez said, it’s “a very positive level.”

We need to be able to take advantage of that commitment to learning and “make the most of it.”

In his work with the district, Rodriguez, also the parent of a St. Paul student, has worked both with its research office and directly with teachers on helping them improve classroom assessments.

Influences on Rodriguez include Minnesota public policy legend John Brandl, his master’s degree adviser at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Brandl encouraged Rodriguez to remain here, rather than work at the federal level. “If you want to see real change,” Rodriguez recalls the former state lawmaker saying, “that occurs locally.”

The advice “really struck a chord with me,” said Rodriguez, who also has a doctorate from Michigan State University.

Brandl’s approach is one of “really understanding the need of communities” and also understanding “the role of local wisdom and the wisdom of communities.”

Perhaps we can tap that wisdom as St. Paul works to tailor school work to what students need.

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